English Studies, Playing the Game

Johnathan Thurston’s Autobiography

Johnathan Thurston’s Autobiography is a novel that you should definitely read. After reading the
prologue I think the book will be about Thurston’s upbringing from a very young age and his
progression to be a professional NRL player. When Thurston was young, he started out as a local
football player, who had a massive dream to become a professional football player and eventually
making it into the NRL. When he was older, he signed up for the Canterbury Bulldogs but was hit
with constant rejection, as he was too scrawny, too small, not tough enough they told him. Further
into his career he signed for North Queensland Cowboys. In the prologue Thurston brought up a few
of his mates who played for the Brisbane Broncos. The very last line of the prologue states that the
story of Thurston’s life ‘begins in a Brisbane backyard- with a boy a ball and a bloody big dream’.

The best moments of JT’s experience was when he won the grand final with the Cowboys as well as
his wife Sam and daughter Frankie, being at the grand final and supporting and encouraging him to
persevere. This prologue shows the importance of sport in the community by the amount of people
who attended the NRL grand finale, “flags, banners and pumping fists” were everywhere as the
“crowd roared.”

The text shows the value and importance of friendship because when he kicked the conversion goal
and missed his friends cheered him on and encouraged him to keep going in a time where he
wanted to give up. One of his teammates said to him ‘pick your lip up, we got this’ as well as telling
him, ‘let’s do this.’ This shows the importance of friendships that are formed through team sport and
the everlasting bond that the players have with each other.